Plants need protection from maltreatment and pollution, government experts said on Monday.

A report by the government-appointed Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) described interfering with plants without a valid reason as "morally inadmissible".

The committee looked at ethical views held on plants and issues of how their use could be justified.

It said that from a wider perspective, "all action involving plants for the preservation of the human race was morally justified"